How Taylor Swift makes and spends money
The world’s highest-paid star owns coastal villas, lavish vacations, and is generous with friends and fans.
The singer born in 1989 makes a lot of money from advertising contracts for big brands. Photo: Mark Humphrey.
At 15 years old, Taylor Swift is the youngest songwriter ever signed to Sony. Currently, she has 10 Grammy statues on her shelf, several solo tours (including a tour that sold tickets for 250 million USD), countless songs/albums dominating the charts and a powerful fan base calling her is “Swifties”.
The aforementioned successes turned Swift into the highest-earning star of 2019 and one of the richest female singers. Last year, Forbes estimated her to have a combined fortune of $320 million.
Swift is generous but strategic with money. She spent $84 million on a massive portfolio of real estate investments and also often contributes to charity or initiatives she supports.
320 million USD was earned by Swift from music, merchandise and advertising contracts. The American superstar is a partner of worthy business brands such as Keds, Diet Coke, CoverGirl and Apple, with contracts that bring lucrative income.
Swift has partnered for the past six years with Diet Coke, which pays her a lot of money to do things like share her love of the drink in an interview with Bon Appetit magazine, or hold a bottle of the beverage in front of the camera.
Adele and Madonna are two female singers with similar fan bases, but their tour coverage and advertising cannot compare to Swift’s in 2016. According to Quartz, that year, their combined income was less than what Swift earned (170 million USD).
Tours are Taylor Swift’s money-making machine. For example, the 1989 tour in 2015 pocketed her $250 million in revenue. According to Billboard estimates, in addition to ticket sales, Swift earns an average of $17 per ticket from items sold with the show.
After 2016 leading the list of highest-earning stars of Forbes (a year where Swift was estimated to earn about $1 million per day), Swift had a “quieter” 2017. She earned 44 million USD and ranked 9th.
Swfit’s millions of music sales come from many sources such as records, music streaming services and publishing rights. A few years ago, there was a prediction that the singer born in 1989 would become a billionaire when he turned 30.
Swift is also a real estate mogul, with $84 million poured into eight mansions in four states, according to the valuation of listing site Trulia.
In the Tennessee capital of Nashville, she has a 300 square meter luxury apartment worth $3 million, and a property with Greek Revival architecture worth $2.5 million. The back house is the cheapest type Swift owns. In addition, there are houses and villas worth 2.8 and 30 million USD respectively in Beverly Hills (Los Angeles, California).
In front of the ocean, Swift bought a property on Rhode Island that was valued at $6.6 million. With 1,100 square meters, it has more than enough room for parties. But the most significant is the $40 million building in her name in the Tribeca area in New York City, including a penthouse (rooftop villa) and a 4-story street house.
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Swift’s beachfront castle on Rhode Island, USA. Photo: Zillow.
To travel between the above houses, Swift needs convenient transportation and according to unofficial information, they are two Dassault private jets – which can be worth up to 58 million USD each. Thanks to the private jet, Swift can also easily go on vacation in an isolated place. For example, she went with her current boyfriend Joe Alwyn to the Turks and Caicos Islands for Independence Day last year, and she went with her previous boyfriend Calvin Harris to an undisclosed tropical island.
At the end of the 1989 world tour, Swift took 125 people from the performance crew on vacation to Australia.
Swift is generous with money, especially for community and charitable causes. On her 24th birthday, she donated $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. She also provided monetary assistance to victims of natural disasters, such as the Louisiana flood ($1 million) and the Nashville flood ($500,000), or raised $750,000 from a concert for the tornado disaster that occurred in the south of the country. America in 2011.
In addition, Swift contributes to education, with $4 million to the Taylor Swift Education Center and $50,000 to New York public schools.
Crowdfunding platform GoFundMe also credited Swift with raising money several times, such as $10,000 to buy a service dog for an autistic boy and $50,000 for the cancer-stricken nephew of one of her backup dancers.
She famously wrote $1,989 worth of checks, sending them to two fans to pay off their student loans and contribute to dance activities. Swift is also known for the time she paid $250,000 for legal proceedings for her colleague Kesha, helping her friend sue a music producer. And once having dinner with Ed Sheeran and Austin Mahone in Philadelphia, she left a $500 tip.
The American singer raises two Scottish Fold cats, Meredith Gray and Olivia Benson. Each of these breeds is worth 1,000-1,500 USD. Swift’s two cats both have their own product lines at their owner’s store.
When not at home, Swift stirs up the fashion industry by appearing at events or out on the streets of New York. Her street fashion typically combines high-end goods and fast fashion.
Expensive models have been “examined” such as Saint Laurent sneakers, Christian Louboutin backpacks costing more than 1,000 USD or covered dresses designed by Elie Saab. But Swift also chooses cheap products like $60 Steve Maden sandals or Brandy Melville casual clothes. She also shows her love for the Madewell brand, which sells popular shorts and crop tops.
But after talking about all of Swift’s generosity with her money, whether for personal investments or charity, there’s an important expense reported by the New York Post in 2015: $40 million in insurance the singer bought. for her famous long legs.
Swift’s legs are worth $40 million. Photo: Andreas Rentz.
